India beat West Indies by 7 wickets

PORT OF SPAIN (TRINIDADD): Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel scored half centuries after leg spinner Amit Misra took his career best figures to guide India to a seven-wicket victory over West Indies in a rain-marred second ODI here Wednesday.

Kohli (81) and Patel (56) stitched a 120-run second wicket stand as India chased a revised target of 183 from 37 overs due to rain with 20 balls to spare at the Queen's Park Oval.

The West Indies had scored 240/9 in their 50 overs with Lendl Simmons (53) and Ramnaresh Sarwan (56) scoring fifties before Misra trigerred a middle-order collapse with his 4-31.

India, playing their first ODI series after their World Cup triumph, now lead the five-match series 2-0 despite the absence of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and star batsman Sachin Tendulkar.

The tourist, however, had an early setback when they lost opener Shikher Dhawan (3) early in the third over but man of the match Kohli smashed six fours and a six in his 103 balls and Patel played a blistering knock off 64 deliveries to put India back on track.

Patel was caught behind off leg-spinner Anthony Martin in the 27th over, and Kohli was caught at long-off off leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo four overs later.

Rain halted India's march for 80 minutes but the visitors were never in a spot of bother with skipper Suresh Raina (26 not out) hitting the winning runs for India.

Put to bat, the West Indies had looked set for a 250 plus total when they were 192 for three at the end of the 41st over and a set Ramesh Sarwan at the crease.

But that was when the script went awry as four batsmen, including Sarwan, fell within five runs and the home team was left struggling at 197/7 with 38 balls remaining.

Mishra did the maximum damage for India, Captain Darren Sammy (22), along with Ravi Rampaul (14), added 31 valuable runs towards the end and lent respectability to the final score.

The hosts were off to a solid start with Simmons and Kirk Edwards (25) forging a 57-run opening stand. After Edwards was caught behind off Mishra, Simmons and Sarwan added another 67 runs.

West Indies v India, 2nd ODI, Trinidad : Mature Kohli makes all the right moves

Virat Kohli comes to meet the press in a sleeveless shirt. An image of a Japanese samurai warrior with a sword raised screams out in a tattoo on his left shoulder. He looks relaxed; the musk he is wearing is called confidence. He was once brash but he was always ambitious. For a while he was living on the edge, struggling to come to terms with early fame, but his ambition has roped him in.

It was during an inane tri-series in Bangladesh in January 2010 that he first showed signs of maturity in public. It made you sit up and notice then. These days he wears it lightly. The clarity of thought is striking. He seems to be at peace with himself. It's no coincidence that his cricket too is flourishing.  Today's knock was yet another one from the stable of Kohli. He seemed always under control. The bowling wasn't too testing, the pitch had eased up and he rarely let the opposition into the game. Later, he said the right things. These days he always says the right things with a smile. The confidence hits you. The once brash brat is now almost likeable. Times they are changing.

"I was always determined to do well," Kohli said. "Probably what I was doing off the field was not on at that time. I probably got carried away. Someone or other always tell you that this has been spoken about you at this place. I decided to change. I decided myself. No one can force myself to change. I had to do it. It was time to change.

"I have been given a chance to play for India, which is not a small thing because you have 20 others with same talent are waiting for that kind of a chance. So why waste the opportunity given to me. I got the odd game here and there in 2009. I was a replacement player then. I was very determined to do well at each opportunity."

In the early days, the lack of consistent runs devalued the swagger that he always seemed to have. It made him look arrogant. Brash. Wild. Unlikeable. And even made you forget that he was just a young boy, learning to deal with things that not many at his age are forced to deal with. The bad press accumulated. The bad karma continued. Kohli was living in the headlines for the wrong reasons. A talent was on the verge of self-destruction. Then something happened.

"It's about realising that every opportunity is as important as the next one or previous one," he said. "Not everyone gets an opportunity to play for India. It's a big honour for me. I have realised that massively in the last one and half years. I want to give 100% and make use of every opportunity. Initially, in my ODI career, I have made rash mistakes with my rush of blood at important times. If you keep doing it, you are not going to get the opportunity. I enjoy my batting these days. Especially during a chase I know what I have to do, rotate the strike."

Questions about his attitude have dogged him for a while. Has he got bored now? "I think I have answered that too much," he said with a smile. "But I have enjoyed answering that question every time. I feel good with myself for having changed what people did not like initially and then transform into that performances. I feel good about it but it's not something I want to be too proud of and get relaxed. I don't want to get complacent. The whole point in changing from that kind of attitude to this current attitude to perform consistently. I want to keep going."

It's not going to be easy. It will take a constant vigil over oneself. The danger of relapse is going to be there. But Kohli continues to not only say but also do the right things. Sample this answer to a question about whether he strives to ape a Tendulkar or a Sehwag. In his own mind, he has translated that question to mean whether he is striving to be as famous as them.

"It was never in my mind that I had to be at the level of them in fame or whatever. Those guys have been there, done that. It has taken a lot of time to reach where they are. There is no point in comparing oneself to them. Everyone has their own style of batting. I have realised that in the last one and half years. I admire them but there is no use batting like them. Take the first match of the World Cup. If I had tried to bat like Viru bhai, I would have perhaps ended up scoring 40. They have a special ability that has made them legends of the game. There is no point in doing what is not my strength."

The answers were perfect. The cynics will say they were too perfect. His fans will say they come from a man who is in a hurry to mature. He won't say it publicly but one gets the impression that he thinks he can become India's captain one day. Kohli has always struck you more ambitious than a Rohit or even Raina for that matter. A scribe put it to him that he has a wonderful ability to talk and express, and asked if he works on that skill.

"I don't think I work on that ability (to express myself)," Kohli said. "It's about being honest."

Does he think it's a leadership quality?

"I can't say anything about it being (leadership quality). I am honest in whatever question is thrown at me at every press conference. I don't really work on it."

Virat got up and left the room. Ambition floated in the air.

Special One Hour Episode To Air Post Superbowl 2012!

“The Voice,” NBC’s new singing competition which stars Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, Cee Lo Green, and Adam Levine as coaches, has scored the coveted post-Super Bowl spot in 2012. This show has nowhere to go but UP UP UP in ratings!!!

NBC’s Bob Greenblatt said, “There is no better showcase on television than to follow the Super Bowl, and we believe “The Voice’ is deserving of such high-profile exposure. The attention-grabbing blind audition phase of The Voice has mass appeal and will fittingly team up with the biggest sporting event of the year.”

“The Voice” hosted by Carson Daly, debuted on April 26 and has been a ratings hit since then.  Starting  next week, the show will have their singing competition live after the coaches had chosen four contestants each. Due to consistent high viewership, the show was picked up last month for a second season.

Fox hosted the Super Bowl this year and gave the coveted spot to its breakout hit “Glee,” which became the top scripted telecast in three years. The Voice is expected to accomplish the same or even better.

One advice to NBC execs though. Don’t let Christina sing the national anthem again next year. She might mess up the lyrics again. Remember the lyrics fumble last year?

CBSE Class 10 results today

Putting an end to much hearsay, the CBSE board officially announced on Monday night that Class 10 results would be declared after 10am on Tuesday. Students, so far buoyed along by news report that suggested a different date, are relieved to know that results will finally be out on Tuesday.

“It was so annoying to keep waiting and hearing all these different dates,” said Harsha Khara, 15, a Class 10 student. “Now it’s finally coming out and I’m waiting to know how I’ve performed.” Khara is among the first batch of students for whom the Class 10 board exam was optional. He was one of the nearly 16,000 students in the state to have opted to take the board exam, with nearly 6,000 students preferring to take the school-based exam instead.

Either way, all 21,000-odd students in the state will receive the same report cards and be graded along the same pattern when they find out how they have done. “I’m looking forward to the new report card they had spoken about,” said Khara.

This year’s report cards will include information on students’ curricular and extra-curricular performances. “There will be a lot of information in the new report cards which will be good for parents to know,” Vineet Joshi, the board’s chairperson had earlier said.

The board will only release the results for the Chennai region, which includes Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Daman and Diu. The board has not specified when the Class 10 results for the country’s other regions will be announced.

Memorial Day means remembrance of those who died

In May of 1868, General John Logan proclaimed Decoration Day as a day of reflection and remembrance for the sacrifices of military service members by having flowers placed on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers. Decoration Day was unofficially changed to Memorial Day in 1882 and in 2011 we continue to acknowledge the valued service of our military by reflecting on the same sacrifices: duty, honor, country.

As a veteran I feel it is my duty to remind Alaskans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, a day that sometimes gets distorted, lost in commercialism or drowned in forgetful indulgence. The true meaning of Memorial Day becomes at times distant or vague and there is a failure to recognize the magnitude of the deeds and sacrifice of our servicemen and women.

Since the first colonial soldiers took up arms in 1775 in their fight for independence, more than a million service members have made the ultimate sacrifice in defending this great nation. My generation lost over 58,000 and the sacrifice given by "teammates" on a fateful day in September 1970, will forever set on my soul. Memorial Day just amplifies the pain.

World War I veteran Frank Buckles served his country and his generation lost over 400,000. He reflected during a 2010 Memorial Day ceremony, as the last living veteran of his generation, on the sacrifice of his "brothers in arms." Frank Buckles died this past February at 110 years old and was buried with honors at Arlington. A generation of soldiers is now gone. We are losing members of our "Greatest Generation" from World War II at a rate of over 1,000 per day and the next generation may well witness the passing of another generation of soldiers, and so the sacrifice continues. Let us not forget.

Today's generation fighting the War on Terror continues the sacrifice in the name of freedom, still another generation who hold true to the notion that evil and tyranny must not prevail regardless of the cost. This generation of warriors, as generations of warriors past, carries in their heart the words of Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

In 2008 I traveled across America with a retired first sergeant, visiting the grave sites and respective families of soldiers who he lost in Iraq the previous year. It was a painful journey. Though a generation apart I shared his loss, as he felt mine of some 38 years past... "different mud, same blood." We have a shared reflection and remembrance and respect for one another and as veterans we will gather to honor our fallen comrades collectively on this day. For some of us our time together may have been brief, but bonds were formed and our brotherhood intensified through sharing of our tears, our laughter.

Memorial Day needs to be valued as a reminder to honor those who have served. If nothing else, we should all take a minute of our lives on this day to reflect on the sacrifice and service of those that protect the freedom we so cherish and give a moment of remembrance and respect.

"It is the Soldier, not the reporter, who has given us Freedom of the Press. It is the Soldier, not the poet, who has given us Freedom of Speech. It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the Freedom to demonstrate. It is the Soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial; and it is the Soldier who salutes the flag, who serves the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag who allows the protester to burn the flag."

Indianapolis 500 Ticket Prices Didn't Keep Fans Away

Higher ticket prices and lingering concerns about the economy couldn't keep Indianapolis 500 fans away from this year's race.

General admission prices rose this year from $20 to $30, but Indianapolis Motor Speedway spokesman Tom Surber says advance ticket sales heading into Sunday's race were up about 10 percent from 2010.

Track officials don't disclose attendance figures, but the stands had fewer empty seats than in recent years. The 500 draws an estimated 250,000 to 275,000 fans annually.

David Humphrey manages Team Penske's trackside mobile vending unit. He says sales were up over last year but that many fans were still hesitant to buy a T-shirt that cost more than $25.

Some fans still worried about the economy said they couldn't resist souvenirs but found other ways to economize.

Memorial Day Quotes, SMS

On thy grave the rain shall fall from the eyes of a mighty nation!  ~Thomas William Parsons

Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.  ~Daniel Webster

With the tears a Land hath shed
Their graves should ever be green.
~Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Are they dead that yet speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal language?  Are they dead that yet act?  Are they dead that yet move upon society and inspire the people with nobler motives and more heroic patriotism?  ~Henry Ward Beecher

Green sods are all their monuments; and yet it tells
A nobler history than pillared piles,
Or the eternal pyramids.
~James Gates Percival

Is't death to fall for Freedom's right?
He's dead alone who lacks her light!
~Thomas Campbell

For love of country they accepted death...  ~James A. Garfield

They fell, but o'er their glorious grave
Floats free the banner of the cause they died to save.
~Francis Marion Crawford

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.  ~From a headstone in Ireland

Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!
There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.
~Rupert Brooke

The brave die never, though they sleep in dust:
Their courage nerves a thousand living men.
~Minot J. Savage

The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.  ~Benjamin Disraeli

And I'm proud to be an American,
where at least I know I'm free.
And I won't forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
~Lee Greenwood

They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast,
And their names are engraven on honor's bright crest.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Peace to each manly soul that sleepeth;
Rest to each faithful eye that weepeth...
~Thomas Moore

But the freedom that they fought for, and the country grand they wrought for,
Is their monument to-day, and for aye.
~Thomas Dunn English

And they who for their country die shall fill an honored grave, for glory lights the soldier's tomb, and beauty weeps the brave.  ~Joseph Drake

Perform, then, this one act of remembrance before this Day passes - Remember there is an army of defense and advance that never dies and never surrenders, but is increasingly recruited from the eternal sources of the American spirit and from the generations of American youth.  ~W.J. Cameron

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallow'd mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
By fairy hands their knell is rung,
There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell, a weeping hermit, there.
~William Collins

The patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's tree.  ~Thomas Campbell

Decoration Day is the most beautiful of our national holidays.... The grim cannon have turned into palm branches, and the shell and shrapnel into peach blossoms.  ~Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Better than honor and glory, and History's iron pen,
Was the thought of duty done and the love of his fellow-men.
~Richard Watson Gilder

We who are left how shall we look again
Happily on the sun or feel the rain
Without remembering how they who went
Ungrudgingly and spent
Their lives for us loved, too, the sun and rain?
~Wilfred Wilson Gibson

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.  ~Joseph Campbell

Who kept the faith and fought the fight;
The glory theirs, the duty ours.
~Wallace Bruce

I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day.  I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it.  We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did.  ~Benjamin Harrison

Cover them over with beautiful flowers,
Deck them with garlands, those brothers of ours,
Lying so silent by night and by day
Sleeping the years of their manhood away.
Give them the meed they have won in the past;
Give them the honors their future forcast;
Give them the chaplets they won in the strife;
Give them the laurels they lost with their life.
~Will Carleton

Life hangs as nothing in the scale against dear Liberty!  ~Lucy Larcom

All we have of freedom, all we use or know -
This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.
~Rudyard Kipling, The Old Issue, 1899

Our battle-fields, safe in the keeping
Of Nature's kind, fostering care,
Are blooming, - our heroes are sleeping, -
And peace broods perennial there.
~John H. Jewett

These heroes are dead.  They died for liberty - they died for us.  They are at rest.  They sleep in the land they made free, under the flag they rendered stainless, under the solemn pines, the sad hemlocks, the tearful willows, and the embracing vines.  They sleep beneath the shadows of the clouds, careless alike of sunshine or of storm, each in the windowless Place of Rest.  Earth may run red with other wars - they are at peace.  In the midst of battle, in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death.  I have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead:  cheers for the living; tears for the dead.  ~Robert G. Ingersoll

Their silent wounds have speech
More eloquent than men;
Their tones can deeper reach
Than human voice or pen.
~William Woodman

Their own souls rose and cried
Alarum when they heard the sudden wail
Of stricken freedom and along the gale
Saw her eternal banner quivering wide.
~John LeGay Brereton

The dead soldier's silence sings our national anthem.  ~Aaron Kilbourn

Our cheer goes back to them, the valiant dead!
Laurels and roses on their graves to-day,
Lilies and laurels over them we lay,
And violets o'er each unforgotten head.
~Richard Hovey

But fame is theirs - and future days
On pillar'd brass shall tell their praise;
Shall tell - when cold neglect is dead -
"These for their country fought and bled."
~Philip Freneau

Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations, that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided Republic.  ~John A. Logan

Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The story of America's quest for freedom is inscribed on her history in the blood of her patriots.  ~Randy Vader

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Alas, how can we help but mourn
When hero bosoms yield their breath!
A century itself may bear
But once the flower of such a death.
~S. Weir Mitchell

They hover as a cloud of witnesses above this Nation.  ~Henry Ward Beecher

These martyrs of patriotism gave their lives for an idea.  ~Schuyler Colfax

They saw their injured country's woe;
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, - but left the shield.
~Philip Freneau

For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.  ~William Penn

Ah! never shall the land forget
How gushed the life-blood of her brave -
~William Cullen Bryant

"Dead upon the field of glory,"
Hero fit for song and story.
~John Randolph Thompason

Knights of the spirit; warriors in the cause
Of justice absolute 'twixt man and man.
~Richard Watson Gilder

Fold him in his country's stars.
Roll the drum and fire the volley!
What to him are all our wars,
What but death bemocking folly?
~George Henry Boker

The Flag still floats unblotted with defeat!
But ah the blood that keeps its ripples red,
The starry lives that keep its field alight.
~Rupert Hughes

The hero dead cannot expire:
The dead still play their part.
~Charles Sangster

We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them.  ~Francis A. Walker

How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!  ~Maya Angelou